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Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty toured the Edmond Odette Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook Hospital and announced his government is supporting a private members bill banning underage kids from using tanning salons. (Michael Peake/Toronto Sun)

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Ontarians under the age of 18 will be banned from tanning beds under legislation proposed by NDP MPP France Gelinas and now supported by the Dalton McGuinty government.

“The premier actually called me,” Gelinas said Friday. “After I picked myself up off the floor, I listened to what he had to say.”

McGuinty told the opposition member that he was prepared to work with her on her bill to see that it gets the legislature’s stamp of approval - an incredibly rare fate for a private member’s bill.

“We’re committed to finding ways of making the legislature work in the interest of Ontario families,” he said. “It seems to me there is no higher priority than protecting the health and wellbeing of our children.”

McGuinty announced his support for the bill during a visit Friday to the Odette Cancer Centre at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

The Canadian Cancer Society has revealed that young people who use tanning beds are 75% more likely to be diagnosed with melanoma than non-users, and the World Health Organization now lists tanning beds in the same cancer-causing category as tobacco, McGuinty said.

Gelinas said her bill bans the use of tanning beds for young people anywhere in the province, including salons, gyms and private homes.

Her bill also calls for health warning labels on tanning beds and training for staff to identify people with skin so fair it puts them at particular risk for skin cancer.

“To me this is great news,” Gelinas said of her bill’s sudden boost. “I was sent there to make parliament work... I’m ecstatic, I’m happy... we should do this more often.”

McGuinty had never called her personally before, but Gelinas said she now hopes he “puts me on speed dial” when he needs new ideas.